The present invention relates generally to the field of lawn, leaf and turf blowers, and specifically to debris blowers mountable to a vehicle.
In general, debris blowers are known in the commercial turf care industry. Most such debris blowers are hand-held or backpack-style, and most are gasoline-powered, that is, they have a gasoline engine that powers the blower. In such gas-powered blowers, the gasoline engine needs to be very small and light, in order for it to be possible that the unit can be carried by the user, such as in the user's hand or on the back of the user. Accordingly, most such gas-powered blowers have air-cooled 2-cycle engines. Such blowers are often very noisy. A typical gas debris blower will spin a small fan at about 9,000-10,000 rpm. Such a blower will generally deliver about 500 cfm at 150 mph out of the tube, and will cause about a 75-84 db noise level at 50 feet of distance. Further, 2-cycle engines run hot and emit a large amount of air pollution, have high operating costs because of the gasoline/oil mixture, and can be difficult to start with a pull string and manual choke lever. Particularly in a commercial setting, where use of such blowers can be all day long, operators can feel sick from the odors and fumes of gas engines, and feel fatigue from the work of starting and carrying the noisy gas-powered blowers. Most operators will do anything they can to avoid using the gas-powered blowers.
One attempt at a solution to the heat and noise, air pollution, hard starting, and high operating cost problems associated with 2-cycle gas engine powered blowers, has been to try electric powered blowers. Some weight can be eliminated if a corded version is used, but the fact that the blower is corded so severely limits the physical range of use that it is impractical for commercial applications. And conventional handheld cordless versions are much smaller, and generally have a small battery that will only run 9-12 minutes at top speed, requiring constant recharging with the delays and inefficiencies associated with the charging. At the same time, even electric powered blowers have not solved the problem of noise, as the fans they have used to move the air have been at least as much a source of the noise as has been the gas powered engines. Most hand-held battery-operated cordless blowers spin a very small ducted fan at about 18,000-22,000 rpm. Most hand-held battery-operated cordless blowers move air at about 400 cfm at a maximum speed of about 130 mph, and most such cordless blowers cause about 65-70 db of noise at 50 feet of distance.
The present invention relates to improvements over the apparatus described above and to solutions to some of the problems raised or not solved thereby.